Understanding our Faith

Jesus took, blessed, broke and GAVE…

The fourth action of Jesus at the Last Supper was his GIVING of the taken, blessed and broken bread, and the taken and blessed wine to his disciples.  This is of course receiving of communion for us today.  It is the culminating point of the liturgy of the Eucharist.  The Eucharist achieves its purpose in the giving and receiving of holy communion.  This is the reason for which Jesus gave us the Eucharist – that we might enter into communion with him.

It is in and through that transformed bread and wine that Jesus enters again into communion with us; it is in the receiving of that bread and wine that we receive the gift of himself that Jesus gives us.  That gift which he gave on the cross.  The Eucharist draws us into continuing communion with him.

This is not just my receiving of communion but our receiving of communion.  The Lord Jesus gives himself to all gathered together to receive that gift.  As St Paul says, we become one body in our receiving of a portion of that one broken loaf.  Paul says: “The bread that we break, is it not a FELLOWSHIP in the body of Christ?  As there is one bread, so we, though many, are one body, for we all share in the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)

So, during the Communion Rite, there is considerable emphasis on the communal nature of what we are doing and receiving.  We pray the Lord’s prayer together, which of course begins OUR Father.  We pray for peace and we offer each other a sign of peace.  We go to communion together in procession and we sing as we do so.  We have a time for quiet prayer after we have received communion.

In our communion, we are being drawn by Jesus into his dying and rising.  In his death, Jesus handed himself over to the Father: “Into your hands I commend my spirit”.  He now draws us into that same attitude of entrusting our lives to the Father, the One who has already given us the life we now live.

In this bread and wine – these sources of new life for us – we are already receiving the beginnings of the life Jesus has gained for us: the life of the resurrection, a life over which death has no power.

The Eucharist stands at the very heart of the Christian life.  It is where we become who we are – a communion of life with the Lord Jesus and with each other.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin